Pepsi pulls plug on horse show after video sting

Kudos to Pepsi for yanking its sponsorship of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration after undercover Humane Society operatives released video of trainers abusing these beautiful performers. Trainers were secretly filmed subjecting their charges to "soring," a horrific practice in which they beat horses with sticks, poke them with electric prods and coat their ankles with caustic chemicals, then cover them with plastic to intensify the pain -- all to accentuate the horse's high-stepping gait called the "big lick." Walking Horse shows allow chain bracelets of up to 6 ounces to be attached to the horse's pasterns (bad enough), but there's no way any horse lover can find the abuse shown here to be anything other than disgusting.